Petr Vakoc: Looking back and Moving Forward!

Petr Vakoc: Looking back and Moving Forward!

It's the first time for me here in Dubai, it's actually more breathtaking than I imagined before coming here!

The first day we went just for a short lap of training. It was nice, no traffic. It was on a track of seven kilometers where we did some laps. The weather was beautiful.

Yesterday we did the recon of Stage 3 in Hatta Dam, which is where you have to pass the border of Oman.

We went to do the team presentation yesterday, this was like I've never seen before. Such a great show.

I'm really looking forward to seeing what we can do at this race!

I haven't had much chance to talk about last year, which was my first as a pro. It was a lot of experience, a lot of learning, some good results and sharing the joy with my teammates by working for them. It was really a great year.

My win in the Tour of Poland was really nice. Even just the experience in the break away was special. I didn't know if I would make it and just to cross the line, I was exhausted. But more importantly, there was such joy in all of that... and it just started! Everything went so fast. There was immediately interviews, press conference, the podium, some more interviews, and when I got back to the car my phone was full of messages!

We had a two hour and a half transfer, it took me the whole way to answer all the messages and calling. ;-) That was really an amazing experience, something I will never forget!

To be able to share the joy with my friends and family, that is something special.The four days in the lead jersey I was a bit afraid but then I started to enjoy it, so that was nice!

When I came home it gave me so much more motivation for training for the next season.

It was my dream to be a professional rider, to be in a team like this. The best team in the world.

I couldn't believe I achieved it. It was even bigger than I dreamed about.It's such a good experience and I enjoy it a lot. I like all the aspects: Racing in one jersey with the big stars of cycling, learning from them and helping them,traveling and racing in different parts of the world... I realize I'm blessed!

I'm really looking forward to the Ardennes classics. I did some of the Under-23 versions.I like those kind of races, it suits me well and I hope I will help Michal Kwiatowski win them!

I want to be good in this part of the season, be helpful there.

If I could chose one race that I would really like to win... World Championships.That is not the plan for this year so far, but I can say this is my goal - to be World Champion one day.

For this year I hope I still progress and that my condition will be even better than last year.I'll be helpful to my teammates and if I get some opportunities I'll go for it.